We're in Hell
by CrystalFlame360
Summary: During a trip to the mall with Ashley and her friends, the mall gets attacked, and Ashley captured. Leon also gets captured along with a group of strange people. Injected with a parasite that controls its host after high levels of stress, Leon and his new comrades have to save Ashley, before it's too late... (May contain bits of gore, OOC).
1. The Mall

**(A/N) I decided to bring this story back, but this time, it's a bit different. As I've made lots of versions of this story, only one getting published, I decided to combine some versions of this story together. Planning has actually gotten into this version, and from my plans, and this chapter, it's much better.**

 **Now, to clarify, it may say that it's a Resident Evil and Silent Hill crossover, but other series' will also be starring in it. As it's a combination of versions I've done in the past, it has Final Fantasy IX and Metal Gear Solid in it as well (don't ask about the odd combination). Just it's characters though, it's set in the RE and SH universe, hence why they were placed as the main series'. So, elements from those series', mostly Resident Evil will be getting used. For example, if you've played FFIX, you don't have to worry about life itself becoming the main plot point, or if you've played Metal Gear Solid, you don't have to worry about Metal Gears and nanomacines becoming the main plot point.**

 **Just to warn, this chapter has 3 OCs in it. I really HATE them, but they were just used to add life to the universe, I guess. They're not crucial to the plot, so don't worry.**

 **I think this author's note has gone on long enough. So...**

 **No flames please, if you hate it, keep it to yourself. However, if you think it could be better, recommend improvements, as well as what was good and what was bad.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own these franchises, or their characters. Resident Evil belongs to CAPCOM, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid belong to KONAMI and Final Fantasy belongs to SQUARE ENIX.**

 **Man, it feel weird to put this again.**

 **XXXXXXX**

Chapter 1: The Mall

It was a rather pleasant day; the sky was a clear blue, not a single cloud in the sky, and the sun was shining bright. The weather was warm, and there was a lovely summer breeze.

Unfortunately for Leon, he had to take Ashley, the President's daughter, to the mall to meet with her friends. They were going clothes shopping, while, probably, talking about boys and checking them out. That kind of trip wasn't the agent's cup of tea, but, as her body-guard, he had to go with her.

Since the incident in Spain, involving the Los Illuminados and parasites, Leon had to look after the President and his family, Ashley mostly. He even had to live in the White House. It was great, for the most part; he got the pleasure of living in the White House, a comfortable bed to sleep in, and the meals were delectable. However, there were also downsides to him living with the President's family, such as the fact that his room was next door to Ashley's, so he had to hear her giggling on the phone all evening, getting little sleep as a result; he also had to eat whenever Ashley ate, which wasn't too bad, and go wherever she wanted to go, which was rather unfavourable, hence why he was on this _fabulous_ trip with her.

So far on their journey, no words were exchanged, it was silent; only the sound of the radio was preventing the drive being awkward. Leon wasn't as fond of the music as Ashley was, so he turned it off.

"Leon! I was listening to that!" Ashley shrieked, reaching for the radio's 'on' button.

"I wasn't," the agent said, flatly, gently swatting the girl's hand away from the radio.

"Oh, come on, Leon!"

"We're close to the mall now, so we don't even need it."

"Fine."

Huffing, Ashley sat back in her seat and folded her arms, looking ahead as she could see the mall slowly coming into view.

"Stop being childish," Leon sighed. "How long are we going to be there anyway? 15 to 30 minutes, or -"

"2 hours, 3 at most," the girl replied, unbuckling her seat-belt, as the car came to a halt in the mall's car park.

Knitting his brows together, Leon turned the key and took it out. Before he could even remove his own seat-belt, Ashley was already out of the car, standing outside as she waited for the blonde male to get out. Once he was out, they headed towards the mall entrance.

Upon reaching the automatic double-doors, the pair heard screeching behind them, followed by, "Ashley!"

Knowing what was to come next, Leon covered his ears. As if on cue, he heard another screech, followed by, "Girls!"

 _'This is going to be a long day.'_

"Leon, get over here!"

Looking behind him, he saw Ashley and her group of friends, as to be expected. Who did he think it was? The President coming to save him? Nah...

He could still dream.

As he headed towards the group of girls, he heard one of them ask: "Who is he?" followed by two different voices, saying, "He's cute," and "Is he your boyfriend?"

 _'Typical.'_

"No, he's not my boyfriend," Ashley replied, with a slight blush. "He's my body-guard," she added, as if she was showing off the latest new toy that everyone wanted on the playground at school.

"You have a body-guard?!" One of her friends asked in awe, as she flipped her curly black hair over her shoulder.

"Who's good looking no less," added another one of her friends, as she placed a pink phone in her red handbag.

"I'm soo jelly, I want one," stated the third friend, as she started to clean her glasses.

Leon shuddered; this was starting to make him feel uncomfortable.

Noticing the agent stood beside her, with an expression that showed discomfort, she decided to introduce them.

"Leon," she started. "This is Bridget," she said, as she pointed to the girl with the curly black hair. "Alex," she pointed to the girl with the red handbag. "And Sasha," she pointed to the girl with glasses.

"OK, so now that the introductions are out of the way," started Bridget. "Can we start shopping now?"

"Totally! C'mon, Ash!" said Sasha, as the girls went through the door, with Leon, unwillingly, following.

The mall was busy, most likely due to the warm weather. It was filled with life, of course, why wouldn't it be? The place was a hot-spot, so it was busy most of the time, especially on Christmas time.

There were a wide variety of items there, such as clothes, jewellery, perfume, toys, video games, board games, and even more; heck, there was even a café, an ear-piercing studio and a tattoo shop.

The place was known as heaven to all ages.

Although there were all these nice places to look at, the girls were just going to shop for clothes, and clothes, and maybe shoes, too.

Firstly, they looked at some tops, which didn't appeal much to Leon. Ashley took a liking to a top that showed off her midriff and cleavage. The agent wasn't going to bother explaining to the President why his daughter chose that out of the plentiful amount of appropriate ones for sale. He'll let her explain. Then, they looked at some pants and skirts, which also didn't appeal much to Leon. Ashley took a liking to a pair of pants that came with a red belt.

Luckily, for Leon, the day was coming to a close and they were going to leave. His arms were starting to ache with all the bags he was carrying, so he was looking forward to putting the belongings in the boot of the car, then make his way home.

"Oh my god!" Alex screeched, causing Leon to promptly cover his ears, and drop the bags. "Look at those cute dresses!"

The other girls looked to where Alex was pointing in excitement. There were, in fact, dresses there, in a variety of different lengths, colours, sizes, and designs.

More screeching.

"They're on sale!" Ashley stated. "Leon, can we take a look?"

The agent didn't know what to say. The President said they had to be home by 4 o' clock, no later than that, and the time was 15:23. With the time it would take to put the shopping in the boot, drop Ashley's friends off home, and get themselves home, they would be back a little past 4 o' clock, which was a little late, but, maybe the President would let it slide. If checking out dresses was added to the list of things to do, they would be back way past 4, which would result in Leon's head being on a stick; President Graham's words exactly.

With those thoughts in mind, Leon told them, "I'm sorry, but we can't waste time looking at dresses. Your dad wants you home by 4. Maybe, we can look at them next time."

With pouts on their faces, the girls went anyway, with Ashley saying, "there won't be a next time, Leon, it's a sale."

 _'Why bother asking?'_ he thought, as he picked up the bags, and followed while glancing at his watch. **15:25**

They were trying dresses on, and messing about, which was starting to get on the blonde's nerves. After what felt like forever, the agent glanced at his watch. **15:43**

"OK, we have to go now. Buy whatever dress you like and let's go," Leon instructed.

As the other girls did as they were told, Ashley just stood there. Her arms were folded, and she looked annoyed.

"What?" Leon asked.

Just after he asked, the power went off in the whole mall, causing people to gasp. Ashley whimpered, as she started to inch behind a big, puffy wedding dress.

Removing his gun from its holster, Leon glanced around to see if there was anything out of place; such as suspicious people, or something dangerous that doesn't belong. He saw nothing, only the faces of worried people.

Maybe, he's just being paranoid. Maybe, it's just a power outage.

Suddenly, the smashing of glass was heard, followed by purple smoke engulfing the top floor. Civilians started to scream, as footsteps and gunshots rang out.

Running up the escalator, which now wasn't on, the agent saw innocent people collapsing on the floor, either due to the smoke, or having a bullet in their head. These horrific acts were being performed by men in black tactical gear and gas masks, and a lot of them.

 _'What the-! Why were they doing this? What do they have to gain from this?!'_

Behind him, he heard a crash and more screams. Turning around, he saw that his question had been answered. One of the men had pulled Ashley from her hiding place, while she screamed and tried to punch her captor. Before Leon could act, he felt a barrel make contact with the back of his head, followed by darkness.

 **XXXXXXX**

 **So, I hope you think the start is better than the first version I published, if you have read that version. If you hated the OCs, good, you're not meant to like them. The next chapter is where things kick off, so stay tuned. Improvements are appreciated, please tell me what I did right, wrong and how I can improve. If you would like, you could also favourite and follow this fic, as well as suggest ideas for future chapters. R &R and thanks for reading!**


	2. And So, It Begins

**(A/N) I already had this written, so I thought, why not. Also, because of how stanger chapter 1, and maybe the rest of the story, is, I thought I'd post this to make up for it. It'll get better. I promise. No flames please, if you hate it, keep it to yourself. However, if you think it could be better, recommend improvements, as well as what was good and what was bad.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own these franchises, or their characters. Resident Evil belongs to CAPCOM, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid belong to KONAMI and Final Fantasy belongs to SQUARE ENIX.**

 **XXXXXXX**

Chapter 2: And So, It Begins...

Upon regaining consciousness, Leon was met with a throbbing sensation at the back of his head, and complete darkness. Sitting up, whilst opening his eyes, he saw that he was lying at the top of the mall's escalators in almost complete darkness, surrounded by dead bodies.

How long had he been out for?

Looking at his watch, he frowned to see that it was cracked and broken, the time stuck on **16:00**.

'Great,' the agent thought, as he picked up his gun off the floor, and stood up. He felt like he had been hit by a bus, what had happened? But then, it all came back to him in a flash. Suspicious men broke into the mall, people were killed, and Ashley...

He had to look for her.

Going down the stairs, he saw that there was nobody in sight; not even Ashley and her friends were anywhere to be seen, however that man may have succeeded at getting away with Ashley, but despite this, he still felt that he had to look for her. The dresses were no longer on their hangers, instead all over the floor, and the dress mannequins were knocked over and damaged. Gunshot holes were also on the walls, and, as expected, the windows were smashed, letting in a cool breeze. He could also see that it was dark outside, too.

"Ashley!" He called.

Nothing.

He heard breathing. Was it Ashley?

Listening closely, he followed the sound of the breathing to the entrance of the dressing rooms. It wasn't Ashley he saw, but one of her friends. Alex. She was lying on her back, eyes closed, in a puddle of her own blood, a gunshot wound through her chest. Her chest was caked in blood, and the red liquid also ran from her mouth, slowly. How she was still alive, Leon didn't know, but at least someone survived. Maybe, she could tell him where Ashley was, after he got her medical attention; she really looked like she needed it.

"Hey," he whispered, as he shook her. "Wake up."

Slowly, her eyes opened, to reveal red orbs. Taken aback by this, the agent stared. He had seen this before, at Spain four months ago; it was one of the symptoms of being infected with the Las Plaugas parasite... but she can't be infected, as the parasite wasn't in America as far as he knew. So, why...?

Before he could ponder further, the girl stood with a scream. As she turned to face him, he heard her neck, and the rest of her body, crack as she moved.

Without thinking, he aimed his gun, ready to shoot if she attacked. With a loud moan, Alex lifted her right arm to point at Leon, as she said, "Die!"

At an unexpected speed, she rushed at him. The agent shot at her, however, she kept dodging every bullet he fired, and with one bullet left in his clip, he managed to pierce her eye, causing it to splatter in her socket. It stunned her for a short period of time, as she gripped her eye with a howl. With a scream, she looked at him, sharp teeth bared in anger, as red jelly ran from her right eye socket. Quickly, the agent went to reload his gun, when he was tackled to the floor, causing him to drop his gun. Bony fingers wrapped around his throat, as the girl hissed at Leon, the blood from her eye dripped onto the agent's shoulder.

He couldn't get her off of him.

As his eyes were about to close, he heard a gunshot, followed by the sight of the girl's head exploding, making her to let go of Leon and fall to the ground, motionless.

A little dazed, the agent sat up, gasping for air as he picked up his gun.

"Thanks for the help," he said, between gasps. "Whoever you are."

"You're welcome," a voice of a female replied, as a silhouette walked down the escalator. When the shadow came closer, he could make out a teenage girl, with shaggy, dishevelled, layered, chin-length blonde hair, with brown roots showing. She had hazel eyes, and a side swept fringe covering her right eye. "Are you okay?" she asked, as she stood in front of the agent.

"Yeah," he replied, as he reloaded his gun. "If you don't mind me asking, who are you? You look a little young to be wielding a gun, which makes me doubt that you're an undercover cop."

"I'm Heather," the girl said, as she held out her hand. "And you are?"

"Leon," he returned the handshake with a small smile. "Leon Kennedy. So, what brings you here?"

"Well," she sighed. "I was just looking around this area for supplies, and I got curious when I noticed that this mall was quiet. Sure, the logical explanation would be to say that it was closing time, but I've been to this place before, and they don't usually close until eleven o'clock; it's only eight o'clock, or somewhere close to it, so, I went to investigate after noticing that the windows were broken. I wasn't expecting to see dead people and monsters, though."

She glanced around her surroundings, then looked down at the dead monster on the floor, before sighing again, but in relief. "I'm glad I did check this place out, who knows what would have happened to you if I hadn't." She then rapidly shook her head, as if trying to shake off an image she didn't want to see, and turned to the direction she came from. "It's not safe here," she said suddenly, as she reloaded her gun. "My Dad should be waiting for me somewhere around here, and I could ask him to give you a lift home, if you want."

"Sorry, but I have to decline that offer, I need to find Ashley, if I don't find her -"

"Who's Ashley? Is she, like, your daughter? Sister?" Heather asked with curiosity, as she turned to face the agent again.

"No, she's the daughter of the current President, actually," he replied a little sheepishly; he was hoping that he didn't have to explain the fact that he failed to do a simple task, which was to protect her.

"Really? She's the President's daughter?" the girl said in awe; that look was then replaced by a smirk. "Is she a friend of yours? Something more?"

"No, no, no," Leon answered quickly, trying to stop himself from laughing. That had to be the third most absurd thing he'd heard in his life; the first was being told that zombies and monsters were real, which was unfortunately true, and the second was Ashley asking him for 'overtime.' Collecting himself, he answered. "I'm an agent for the U.S. Government, working as a body-guard for Ashley, while President Graham is in power. She was kidnapped by men in black, and I really need to find her."

"Oh," Heather looked in thought, trying to process the information. "That's a big deal..."

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by the rushing of footsteps, followed by groans, and a parasite emerging from the stump that was once Alex's head, as she stood. A horrified expression appeared on Heather's face, as she readied her weapon and aimed at the parasite. Before she could fire, the rushing footsteps became louder, and the parasite started to remove itself from Alex's head and crawl towards them like a spider.

"Shit! We need to get out of here!" Leon yelled, as he grabbed Heather's arm and ran out of the smashed window.

As they ran down the darkened street, Heather screamed, "what was that thing?! It's like a gross -"

"I'll tell you once we're somewhere safe," the agent replied, as a red jeep pulled up next to them.

The windows rolled down, revealing a man in his early thirties, with gelled brown hair and dark blue eyes. "Get in," he said in a monotone voice. Without question, the pair got in.

Leon looked out of the back window, to see people, no, monsters rushing to catch up to no avail.

"Heather, who is this? What happened?" the brunette man asked with concern.

"Oh, that's Leon. I'll explain more when we get to the motel," she replied, shakily.

"Hmm, okay."

"Who's that guy?" the agent whispered, pointing to the driver.

"That's my Dad, Harry Mason."

 **XXXXXXX**

 **So... I don't know what to say. It's _really_ windy outside right now, and hearing it is ruining my thought process. Anyway, that was my first shot at writing an action scene, I personally don't find it very good, but what did you think of it? What do you think of this chapter? Tell me in the reviews! Also, there will be more action scenes in the future, so improvements on that would also be greatly appreciated. As I've just said, improvements are appreciated, please tell me what I did right, wrong and how I can improve. If you would like, you could also favourite and follow this fic, as well as suggest ideas for future chapters. R &R and thanks for reading!**


	3. Motel Meetings and Explanations

**(A/N) So, this is Chapter 3. This one took longer to write, as you can see, it's longer. It's the longest piece of writing I've done, so I'm quite pleased with myself.**

 **Just to warn you before reading this chapter. In this universe, yeah, I guess you've gathered it's sort of an AU, Silent Hill 3 didn't happen. So, I guess you're wondering now, _"why put Heather, the main protagonist of SILENT HILL 3, in this story?"_ Well, she's one of my favourite characters in the SH series, and she's Harry's daughter, so... I don't know.**

 **Anyway, no flames please, if you hate it, keep it to yourself. However, if you think it could be better, recommend improvements, as well as what was good and what was bad.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own these franchises, or their characters. Resident Evil belongs to CAPCOM, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid belong to KONAMI and Final Fantasy belongs to SQUARE ENIX.**

 **Funny. I haven't gotten to MGS or FF, yet I still type the disclaimer for them... ^_^**

 **XXXXXXX**

Chapter 3: Motel Meetings and Explanations

The car journey was long, too long; Leon didn't even know where they were going. His thoughts were mostly filled with questions: What did those men want with Ashley? And what was he going to do from there on out? He couldn't just stand there; if the President found out that his daughter had been kidnapped with Leon on watch, he was going to lose his job, and maybe, have a wonderful time having his head on a stick.

He didn't want that happening.

Looking out of the window, Leon could see that the sky was now completely pitch black, and all the shops had closed, meaning it was quite late. He was still curious as to where he was going, and he didn't feel like interrupting Heather and Harry, who were talking about something Leon didn't feel like paying attention to.

So, he was just left with his thoughts, which weren't really pleasant to indulge in.

After, what felt like forever, the car came to a halt. Turning off the ignition and taking out the keys, Harry turned to Leon, and said, "we're here."

"Huh?" The agent looked around, and saw that they were in a car park. A Motel car park. One the agent hadn't been to before. "Why are we here?" He asked.

"There are some friends we'd like you to meet," Heather said, with a small smile on her face, as she got out of the car. Harry had already gotten out, and was waiting for Leon to get out, so he could lock his car.

Stepping out, the agent glanced around. He really didn't recognise the place, and he was glad he didn't. The concrete had this white, dried liquid on it, and the outside of the motel itself looked dilapidated and the windows had wooden barricades on them. It was definitely not the kind of place a snobby, rich person would stay in.

"Cresswell Motel," Harry stated, as he locked his car. "It's not the best place to stay, but at least it's better than nothing."

"Yeah," Heather looked down. "There was nowhere else to go."

"What do you -?" Leon was cutoff mid-sentence.

"Let's get inside, it's not safe," Harry urged, sounding somewhat, uncomfortable, as he headed towards the building, followed by Heather.

"I guess you're right," Leon agreed, as he followed the pair inside.

The inside didn't look like the kind of place you'd find a rich person staying in either. The wall paper was a rotting yellow colour and torn in random places, damp could be seen in the corners of the roof, and the carpet was green, with tears in it, revealing the laminate flooring underneath; which looked like it needed a good mopping. There were no paintings of flowers or meadows on the walls, and the furniture looked unkempt and sickening to look at.

"Home, sweet home," Heather sighed, sounding unenthusiastic and worn out. She sat at a wooden table, and rested her head on it, as she looked at the disgusted Government Agent, who was still looking around the room. "Take a seat," she told him, as she sat up and opened a can of energy drink, which was already on the table.

"Is that expired?" Leon asked, as he sat opposite her.

"No," she replied, with a little smirk. "I only bought it today." She took a sip. "I know this place looks gross," she sighed, "but it's all we have for now."

"Yeah, I understand," he sighed.

"Me and my Dad were talking in the car, and we decided that we'd help you find Ashley, if you wanted us to," she sat back in her seat, expectantly with folded arms. "And not just us, but we're going to have a meeting when everyone's together, and ask them if they want to assist us."

"Oh yeah, you did say there were others here, right?"

"Yeah; me, my Dad, and two others."

"Then, where are they?"

"One of them should be at a 24 hour shop, getting some food and other necessities," Harry stated, looking up from the book he was reading. "The other, should be out in the back," he pointed to a red door, that looked like it had been scratched to hell.

"Oh," Leon looked back to Heather. "What are they like?"

"Umm," Heather looked in thought for a moment, then looked back at Leon. "Henry is quiet and very emotionless, but he's a nice guy, he doesn't have one nasty bone in his body. He's the kind of guy that would listen to your problems, and doesn't even judge you. However, he can get a little violent if harm comes to anyone."

"Sounds reliable," Leon said, with a small smile.

"Yeah, he is."

"Is the other person any reliable?"

"Yeah, he is, but -"

"He's not mentally stable; I believe he has depression, so he's melancholy most of the time, and can be surly at times," Harry explained, placing his book down on a worn table beside him. "To add to that, he can be a little bit paranoid, and mostly just keeps to himself, but that aside, he is a very reliable person."

He didn't know why, but Leon started to get a bad feeling, and felt like he had to leave quickly. It wasn't the fact that their living space looked disgusting, or the fact that one of their comrades was mentally unstable, but he just had a bad feeling, without explanation. Was he just worried about Ashley's well being? Yeah, that was it. He just has to find her, then -

The sound of a door opening was heard, followed by Heather saying, "speak of the devil," under her breath. Looking in the direction where the back door was, he saw a man with dirty blonde hair, and a green jacket with jeans.

The man looked at Leon with confusion, and before he could question who the agent was, Heather spoke up. "This is Leon," she stated, "I know you may want to know why, or how he got here, but I will explain everything when Henry gets back."

"Okay," the man replied, as he took a seat next to Leon. "Do you know how long he's going to be?" He asked.

"We're afraid not," Harry spoke up, walking towards the table. "He's been gone for a couple of hours, so I'm hoping very soon."

Leon wasn't paying attention to the conversation the three were having; instead, he was wondering who the stranger was, as he looked at him through the corner of his eye. Was he that guy Harry was talking about? The unstable one? Come to think of it, the agent didn't even know the unstable one's name, so they could be different people.

"So," Leon started. "Who's this guy?" He asked, pointing to the stranger sat next to him.

"Oh," Heather let out a chuckle. "That's James, the guy we were telling you about."

"What?" the man, called James, asked raising a quizzical brow.

"Nothing," she answered, quickly. "We were just telling Leon about everyone here."

That confirmed the agent's thoughts. He was going to ponder further, before the door opened, followed by a soft voice, with no emotion whatsoever, announcing, "I'm home."

Head turning towards the direction of the sound, Leon saw a man with messy brown hair, with stubble on his face. What was strange, was the fact that Heather and Harry had stated that he'd gone to pick up 'food and other necessities.' However, although he did have a brown paper bag filled with supplies, the white, long-sleeved buttoned shirt he was wearing had patches of dirt and muck on it, and the same went for his jeans.

"Henry, what happened to you?" Heather asked, shock evident in her voice.

"Umm..." he started, as he approached the table, and placed the bag there. "I was attacked by men wearing black."

 _'Men in black?'_ Leon thought, starting to feel oddly guilty. The only men in black Leon could think of, were the men who attacked the mall, killed innocents, and kidnapped Ashley. Wanting to kidnap Ashley, fair enough, she is the President's daughter, who can be used for ransom, or some cultists plot for world domination. But, what would they want with a man going shopping? To steal his food? Rob some money?

"I was attacked on the way, so no supplies were lost," the man finished, still showing no emotion in his voice or features.

"Did they steal any money?" Harry asked, calmly, looking the man, Henry, over for any injuries.

"They didn't appear to want money," he replied.

"Do you have any idea what they wanted?" James asked, a look of concern on his face, as he looked at the brunette.

"No."

 _They attacked the guy for no apparent reason?_

"There doesn't appear to be any serious injuries," Harry stated, "Just a couple of bruises and scratches."

"Who's this?" Henry asked, suddenly, looking at Leon.

"Sit down, Henry," Heather said. "I'll explain."

Henry did as he was told, and sat down next to Heather. Harry grabbed an arm chair, pushed it towards the head of the table, and sat down.

"So, to start off, this is Leon, an agent for the United States Government, who works under the President as a body-guard," Heather stated.

The men, even Harry, looked at the blonde in awe.

Stifling a laugh, the girl continued. "I ran into him a while after the mall was attacked, and he was having a bit of trouble with a very powerful foe, which appeared to be undead. After introductions were out of the way, he told me that Ashley, the daughter of the President, who he was supposed to be guarding, was missing and suspects that she may have been kidnapped. So, I brought him here, hoping that we could help."

"Look," Leon started. "You don't have to, you're just innocent civilians, and -"

"We're anything but that," James said, sounding rather morbid, as he looked down at his hands.

"What do you -"

"What he means, is that we're not 'ordinary' anymore," Harry replied. "We have literally been down to hell and back again, we have fought otherworldly monsters that we thought never existed, even in our most demented of thoughts."

The agent was intrigued by this. The brunette wasn't done.

"In that town, Silent Hill," he mumbled, looking rather angry. "My daughter, Cheryl, was stolen from me, and I'll never see her again, she was only 7 at the time. That was even worse than the monsters."

Leon was saddened by that revelation. The man had lost his 7 year old daughter.

Wait... wasn't Heather his daughter?

"We've all been through similar events, excluding Heather; myself and James being the only ones to have actually gone to the town, Henry did on holiday, I believe. Henry was stuck in his room for days apparently, and every time he went through a hole in his bathroom, he'd see hell itself, the town of Silent Hill, while being persued by a psychotic murderer. We all got to know each other when the attacks started and -"

"What?!" Leon interrupted. "This has happened in other places?"

"Yes, unfortunately. When a strange epidemic broke out in Portland, Heather and I moved to Ashfield in the hopes of escaping it. There, we befriended James, the son of the superintendent of the apartment complex we were staying at, South Ashfield Heights; as well as Henry, who lived in the same building. Sadly, the epidemic broke out there, and - here we are."

"My Dad was killed that time..." James stated, looking back up again. "It was horrible..."

"What we are trying to say Leon is that we have been through a lot worse; rescuing a girl has nothing on us. We're willing to help you, if you ask," Harry told him, as everyone looked at the agent, expectantly.

"Okay, not only will it be easier, but faster, too," Leon said, glad to have people with some experience to help him. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it! Right, so how are we -" Heather was interrupted, when men in black tactical gear busted through the door, and overwhelmed them.

Harry was held by two men at gunpoint, still sat in his chair; Heather was pinned on the ground, a knife being held to her throat; James was being handcuffed, whilst another man pointed a gun at him, and Henry was being restrained by two men, as he tried to prevent the assault.

Leon not wanting anything to happen to his new allies, or himself for that matter, aimed his gun; and was about to shoot one of the men, when he was tackled to the ground and lost his grip on his gun. He then felt something stab into his arm.

"You and your friends are coming with us, Agent Kennedy," the man said, as the blonde lost consciousness.

(...)

Elsewhere, in a dimly lit room, sat a cloaked figure on a throne. Beside the figure, on each side, were people who also wore cloaks. They didn't move, or speak.

The creak of a door was heard, followed by a strange man entering the room.

"Any interesting news?" asked the cloaked figure on the throne.

"We have succeeded in capturing Mr. Kennedy, Master," the man replied. "He also had a few friends with him, which we now have in custody."

"Excellent," the cloaked figure on the throne said. "Give them the 'gift' like we have done the others, and the plan will begin."

 **XXXXXXX**

 **Yeah, from here on out, it's gonna get weird ^_^ and interesting. I hope y'all still interested. I'm not gonna write _'y'all'_ again. Sorry, if I may have gotten a few facts wrong, but I haven't played the SH games in a while, and my PS2 is broken, so I can't play them to refresh my memory, which is a bummer. Improvements are appreciated, please tell me what I did right, wrong and how I can improve. If you would like, you could also favourite and follow this fic, as well as suggest ideas for future chapters. R &R and thanks for reading!**


	4. An Escape Plan

**(A/N) Yeah, so this is Chapter 4. As I warned you last chapter, it's going to start getting a little strange (well, in my opinion, anyway) from now on. Another thing, and I said this in the first chapter, so don't be surprised, but other series' apart from Resident Evil and Silent Hill will be making appearances, namely Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid, whether it be as main characters, or antagonists. I also said this in the first chapter, but don't ask about the strange combination, just series' crossing over fascinates me, no matter how strange it is.**

 **On topic of the story now, god I get sidetracked. Anyway, if you had read the older version that I had posted on this site, then you may recognise this chapter set-up, however, a few things have been altered and the ending is slightly different. Also, I'm starting to feel like this story is a little... well, you know, not very good; some reassurance would be a little nice. I'm sorry if that came off a little as begging, but trust me, I want to know whether I'm doing well this time around and should continue with it. The only planned chapter I have left is Chapter 5, and if nobody is interested, updates for this story won't be as frequent as they were; if someone is interested then I will plan chapter 6 to 10. In short, I just want to know if I'm doing well with this story.**

 **Anyway, cringiness aside, no flames please, if you hate it, keep it to yourself. However, if you think it could be better, recommend improvements, as well as what was good and what was bad.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own these franchises, or their characters. Resident Evil belongs to CAPCOM, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid belong to KONAMI and Final Fantasy belongs to SQUARE ENIX.**

 **XXXXXXX**

Chapter 4: An Escape Plan

Leon woke with a start in what appeared to be a cell with a thick steel door, so he couldn't escape easily. Upon closer inspection, the agent noticed that it had a slider, either to bring food in and out, or so his kidnappers could mock him. Judging by the fact that the door had a red light near the handle, the door was electronically locked, meaning it could be a while before he got out; he may have to pray for a power outage, or something. The room itself, looked dull, and was pretty chilly. From where Leon was facing, he could also see the toilet, which was nauseating to look at, and the odour emitted from it was foul, making the agent scrunch his face in disgust.

Looking back to the door, a thought occurred to him, well, more of a question; what did the men in black want with him? What did they want with Heather and the other three? He couldn't think of a very good reason, and was still feeling groggy from, what he believed to be, a drug he was injected with so he couldn't put up a fight on the way to this cell. He also had his equipment taken away from him too, as his gun was no longer in its holster, and neither was his knife.

With a slight groan, the blonde placed his hand on his forehead, in an effort to dull the headache that had been present since regaining consciousness. He had to think of a way to get out, check if his new allies were okay, and save Ashley; that was the main priority.

He had to make a start, there was no use in sitting there and waiting for stuff to happen; that's Ashley's game, not his.

Standing up, he immediately felt light-headed, and clutched his head, using his free hand to hold the wall for support. "Shit," he cursed to himself. Why did he feel like he had been hit by a truck?

"Hey, are you alright?"

The agent heard a voice, one that sounded concerned. However, he saw no one else in the room, so how... maybe he was just losing it.

"Behind you," the voice told him.

Great, the agent felt that dazed he couldn't think logically, or clearly for that matter.

Turning his head to face the direction of the voice, he saw a teenage boy with layered blonde hair, tied into a short ponytail and blue eyes. Although he was just a kid, Leon couldn't help but feel a little unnerved by him; there was nothing threatening about him, in fact the kid had a baby face, a friendly face to be looking at; however, the fact that the agent could see a monkey tail on him, made him feel uneasy.

Shaking off the feeling of unease, Leon answered with, "Yeah," and sat back down against the wall. His eyes never left the kid. The blonde didn't want to think about why a kid was his cell-mate, or even why he was there. Leon also wanted to know where they were; did the kid know?

"Hey kid, could I ask you something?" the blonde asked, as he brushed his fingers through his hair.

"Go on ahead, but it better not be personal," the kid replied with a grin, as he approached the agent, and sat opposite him with his legs crossed.

"Don't worry, it won't be personal," the agent told him, as he tried not to glance at the kid's tail, which was swaying left and right. "Do you know where we are?"

"Sorry, I don't," the kid's grin faltered, as his tail stopped moving. "I'm just as clueless as you are."

Another question hung about in Leon's head, one that seemed really important now; how did the kid get there, and what did the men in black want with him? He didn't look like a threat, just strange. Couldn't hurt to ask.

"How did you get here?"

The kid just stared for a moment, before looking down, his tail twitching. "I don't know. I'm kind of an actor, and after performing a show, I took a sip out of my water. I guess I passed out, because I woke up here," the kid looked back up. "I must have been drugged, or something, since I woke up feeling like crap."

"How old are you?" Leon asked, raising an eyebrow. "A kid your age shouldn't be using such language."

"I'm 16," the kid replied, folding his arms. "That allows me to use whatever words, or phrases I want."

"Really?" The agent replied, with a smirk. "You're a little short for your age, aren't you? And that face of yours looks like it belongs on a 12 year old boy, not a teenager."

"Think whatever you want, but I'll grow taller one day," the kid replied, with a smirk. "And then who's gonna be laughing?"

Leon smiled a little, but went back into thought.

 _'He's 16, so that makes him a minor. What do the men in black want with a kid?"_

"So, what's your story?" The kid asked, dragging Leon out of his thoughts. "How did you get here?" He looked at Leon with interest.

"Well, I work as an agent for the United States Government, under the President as a body-guard," Leon started, which made the kid look at him with the same awe as Harry, James and Henry. He knew he shouldn't go around telling everyone he met, but if he wanted people to trust him, it was better that they found out sooner, rather than later. "She wanted to go to the mall to meet with her friends, and when we did, the mall was attacked, and Ashley, the daughter of the President, who I was supposed to be guarding, was kidnapped. I met with these people who said they'd help, and then we were drugged and contained here."

"That must've been rough," the kid said, looking down in understanding. "Being taken against your will ain't a fun experience."

"Yeah, I know."

Silence filled the room, as Leon glanced at the window where the kid was previously sat, and saw that it was raining heavily, with lightning flashing at random intervals. How long was he going to sit there, pondering?

"Hey," the kid spoke up, breaking the silence. "What's your name? We can't be cell-buddies without being on naming terms, am I right?"

 _'Cell-buddies?'_ Leon thought. The kid was right, they needed to know each other's names, at least. He can't call him 'kid' the entire time.

"The name's Leon," he replied. "And who might you be?"

"Zidane," the kid replied, holding out his hand, which the agent shook.

"Interesting name," the agent commented.

"Thanks."

Again, the room was silent, only the sound of rumbling thunder was breaking it at random. After a while, the silence was broken by a beeping sound, signaling that the door to the cell had been unlocked, followed by the red light turning green. Leon and his 'cell-buddy,' Zidane, stared at the door in confusion, wondering whether someone was coming in to get them, or if they could make a run for it.

"Leon, the door..."

"I know," he replied, as he stood up and approached the door. Grabbing the handle, he pulled it down, and it opened with a creak. Seeing that it was his chance to escape, he turned to Zidane, who was just stood were he was sat.

"Aren't you coming?" the agent asked, looking at the kid with confusion.

"Of course," he replied. "I'm not staying here, that's for sure."

The pair stepped out into a dark corridor, which was quiet and freezing. The thunder could still be heard, but only as echoed rumbles through the metal walls of the corridor. It was best that they made their escape as quick as possible, but there were two possible ways they could go; the left side, or the right side. The left side had a rusted, red door at the end, but was also the darkest part of the corridor, and the right was a little longer to go, but a flickering light could be made out, which illuminated that way a little bit. Seeing that it looked less dark on the right side, they went that way instead. However, when they got to end, there was another two way split.

"You've got to be kidding me," Leon said to himself, as he felt dizziness return to him again.

"Leon, is that you?" he heard a familiar voice ask. Looking to the left side of the split, he could make out Harry and Henry approaching him.

 _'Thank god, they're alright,'_ the blonde agent thought, before he replied with -

"Yeah, it's me."

"It's good to see that you're okay," Henry said, still lacking emotion in both facial expression and emotion. It was starting to make the agent worry about the guy.

"I could say the same about you two."

Harry spoke up. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

"I'm afraid not," Leon replied, with a sigh. "Where are the others?"

"We're afraid that we aren't sure ourselves," Harry told him. "I'm starting to worry about Heather."

"I don't blame you."

"I wonder who released us from our cells," Henry wondered, scratching his head. "Was it our abductors, or a third party?"

"Probably our abductors," a female voice stated, as the owner came from the right with a man.

"Heather, James, you're both okay," Henry still sounded unenthusiastic, but the agent could still tell he was relieved.

"Yeah, we're fine," James said. "What about you?"

"We're fine," Harry replied, leaning on the wall. "Now that we're all together, we need to think of an escape plan. I suggest that we find a map, as that will make strategising easier, and we can mark where Ashley is if we ever find out."

"That sounds like a good idea," James agreed, with a small smile. Then, a look of confusion was on his face, as he turned to look at the boy stood behind Leon. "Who is he?"

"That's Zidane, we shared a cell when we were in containment," Leon introduced the blonde boy, then looked at him with uncertainty. "He'll be helping us, if that's okay with you, kid?"

"Sure, I don't mind," he replied with a smile, as everyone, excluding Harry and Leon, eyed his tail.

"It's rude to stare, stop it," Harry ordered cooly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Harry."

"I'm Heather," the blonde stated, as she pointed at herself.

"My name is James."

"Henry. It's a pleasure to meet you," the brunette walked towards him, and held out his hand. Even Zidane looked a bit unnerved by his lack of emotion, but he didn't say anything. He just accepted the hand shake.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, too."

"Now that introductions are out of the way," Leon started. "We should check what's through that red door."

"Agreed," Harry said. "Let's go."

And with a new objective, they advanced towards the red door.

 **XXXXXXX**

 **And that was chapter 4. I'm sorry if the arrival of a character that isn't from Resident Evil, or Silent Hill bothers you, but I did warn you. If you're not sure, Zidane is from the nineth Final Fantasy game, which just so happens to be my favourite one in the series. As I said, don't get put off, as I have said RE and SH are mostly the focus, I just like to make stories that mix franchises together. Also, I feel as though there is too much dialogue and hardly any description in this chapter, so for that I apologise. If you found this chapter strange, wait 'til you progress, if I feel confident enough, but hopefully I will do. Improvements are appreciated, please tell me what I did right, wrong and how I can improve. If you would like, you could also favourite and follow this fic, as well as suggest ideas for future chapters. R &R and thanks for reading!**


	5. This Isn't Good

**(A/N) So, this is Chapter 5. I have nothing much to say, except that this chapter is very long, and I'm 14 days early at posting it. If anyone has read my profile, you'll know that I have decided to stick to a schedule, and chapters for this story were going to be posted once a month on the 30th. As you can tell, I'm not going to be sticking to it for now. Why? You ask; well, I'm going to be moving house soon, so as you can possibly tell, it's going to mess with this new schedule I set up, as well as updates. So for now, I'm not going to be sticking to a schedule, and will just post chapters when I finish them.**

 **And on the topic of the story... writing this chapter drained me, and was really exhausting to write. I don't know why that was, but it just was. I pulled through though, and posted a chapter that, hopefully, shows the amount of effort I put in. I hope you enjoy!**

 **No flames please, if you hate it, keep it to yourself. However, if you think it could be better, recommend improvements, as well as what was good and what was bad.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own these franchises, or their characters. Resident Evil belongs to CAPCOM, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid belong to KONAMI and Final Fantasy belongs to SQUARE ENIX.**

 **XXXXXXX**

Chapter 5: This Isn't Good

The red door the group had entered led to a long, dark corridor, that went in a straight line. Windows were present in the corridor, which were broken, allowing the raging storm outside to enter, making puddles and causing people that entered the room to become chill to the bone. Leon, James and Harry weren't fazed much by it, as they wore jackets, however, Heather and Zidane were the most affected due to their arms being bare. Henry, despite him wearing a thin blouse, wasn't bothered.

"It's quite dark," Harry pointed out, squinting through the darkness ahead, as he rubbed his arms in an effort to get warmer. "Does anyone have flashlights? If so, raise your hand."

Nobody raised their hands, but instead looked at the man incredulously; the brunette raised a brow in response.

"Why are you giving me funny looks?" he asked.

"You do know we don't have our stuff, right, Dad?" Heather said slowly, as if she was talking to a slow learner.

"Yes, I know that, but - "

"Our flashlights have also been taken away, Harry," James stated, pointing at his breast pocket, which no longer contained a flashlight.

"Don't be - " Harry started, as he checked his own breast pocket, to find that it was empty. "You're right, but how?"

"They must have searched us, and took anything that could benefit our escape, while we were unconscious," Leon stated. "Kidnappers do that."

"Yeah, but what harm is a flashlight going to do?" asked Zidane, with slight amusement. "I mean, you can't dig your way out with it, and you can't pick locks with it."

"But you can deal blunt force trauma with one, maybe send a signal to show that you have been captured, and possibly make escape more easy, as you can see where you are going, along with other uses," Henry said, then added to his statement with, "I never had one."

"Okay," Harry started, as he looked slightly uncomfortable. "It's going to be best if we stay close, and hope that we find some other way of illuminating our path on our journey."

"Right," Leon started. "Let's get moving; the quicker we find a lead, and find Ashley, the quicker we can leave."

"He's right," said Heather. "Lead the way, Leon."

"Okay."

The walk through the corridor seemed to drag on forever, with random flashes of lightning blinding them temporarily, the sound of rumbling thunder echoing through the corridor, the occasional sprinkle of raindrops on their faces and arms, causing discomfort, and the numbing cold getting worse as they progressed. It wasn't a journey filled with laughs and good memories to be made.

"Leon, how long do we have to walk?" Heather asked through clenched teeth. "It's cold!"

"I don't know, but I hope we won't be here long," Leon replied. "I don't have time for this."

"Neither of us do, Leon," Harry stated. "But I'm afraid it's an obstacle we all need to pass in order to progress."

"We should all know that by now," James mumbled, looking down at the ground as he walked.

Henry just nodded his head in agreement.

"Look on the bright side, at least we have one of the worst parts down," Zidane said, with a slight stutter, as he rubbed his arms quicker than he had been doing when they first entered the corridor.

"With plenty more awaiting us," Harry finished, a morbid tone in his voice.

"You're both not wrong," Leon stated, as he looked on in thought.

They were both right; there were going to be a lot of 'worst parts' on their journey, and a lot to get out of the way. He thought of it like levels in a game, they usually got harder as you progressed, but the more you cleared, the more you learn about the plot, provided the game has one, and the closer you get to the objective at hand. Come to think of it, he thought his mission in Spain felt like a video game: running around, shooting the bad guys, saving the damsel in distress and being witness to eerie environments, it just didn't feel real, but it was. He shouldn't have questioned it, he should have known that it was real, since at the age of 21, when he first arrived at Raccoon City, he was confronted by the walking dead; although at the time, he was convinced, no, trying to convince himself, that he was starring in his own horror movie, or his new co-workers were pulling a sick prank on the new guy, but again, he wasn't; he was just a naïve, rookie police officer, who just arrived at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sometimes, he wondered how he even survived that incident six years ago. Was it due to his police training? Was it just fear that drove him? Was it sheer luck? Or was it with the help of Claire and Ada? He guessed that it was a combination of all of those possibilities, but it didn't stop him thinking about it. He thought about what would have happened if he hadn't had police training, if he was just a mere civilian who just so happened to come across the outbreak of the T-Virus; if he was lucky, he may have stumbled upon Claire, and she would have saved him, or someone might have saved him, at least, but if not, he would be in the stomach of a walking corpse, the rest of him, becoming one of them.

Shaking those thoughts out of his mind, the agent wondered why he was even thinking about this. In this current situation, he had to keep his mind clear of the past, as it could effect his performance; if his performance was effected, lives could be lost, and Ashley, possibly, being one of them.

He had to remain focused.

Spotting a blue door in the distance, Leon started to walk faster, as did the rest of the group. As they got closer, the agent started to get a bad feeling, as if something, or someone terrible was waiting for them beyond the door. Not having any equipment, made this even more nerve racking, because they had no way of defending themselves if anything were to happen. He had to think, fast. When they got in front of the door, Leon stopped and turned to everyone.

"Listen, I have a bad feeling of what is awaiting us behind this door," Leon started. "Since we don't have our equipment, if a threat were to come about, I want you all to run."

"And what about you?" Heather asked.

"Leave me, and - "

"No," Harry said, sternly "We all agreed to help you, and that's what we're going to do. If a threat were to appear, we take it on together."

"Yeah, we may have known you for a really short period of time, but we are willing to help you, and make sure that we all get out alive, including you," Henry stated. "If we were to abandon you, I don't think we'd be able to live with ourselves."

"He's right," James spoke up. "It's easier to fight with people, than being by yourself."

"I'm flattered, but - "

"Leon, please don't try to be a cliché action hero," Heather giggled slightly, determination mostly present. "Think like an average, everyday person. Playing hero could get you in more trouble than it's worth."

"She's right, you know," Zidane agreed. "You may be an agent, but you can't do everything on your own. None of us know the situation, so it's best to stick together."

"Good point," the agent sighed. He's had to play hero so many times in the past: Raccoon City, Operation Javier and the incident in Spain, he hasn't thought like a real person. He had to start. Well, he couldn't think entirely like a normal person, because he wasn't 'normal' anymore, he had a job to do; but he had to get into the mindset of not doing everything alone.

"Okay, let's go," Leon said, as he turned to the door, and took a deep breath. He had to brace himself for what was in store for him and his new team.

Gripping the knob, which unsurprisingly felt cold to the touch, he clenched his free hand into a fist, and opened the door with a creak. Stepping into the room, he glanced around, and was unnerved to see nobody in sight.

It was just a dark, empty room, which was spacious and had nothing in there, which gave it an even more eerie feel. Where was the one responsible for all this giving them a monologue of his, or her, plans? Where was the ambush of monsters coming for them? From his missions in the past, that was what Leon was expecting, and the room they had just entered seemed like the perfect place for that. However, there was nothing.

"Leon, I have a bad feeling about this room," Heather whispered, glancing around their area.

"Me too," Harry said, looking rather observant. "I think we should go."

"But, wouldn't that just lead us back from where we came?" Henry asked.

"Yes, I guess you're right."

Almost instantly after Harry replied, the room was suddenly engulfed in light, which allowed more of the room to be seen. It was as big as they had thought it was, and they didn't have to worry about walking back the way they came, as there were two doors at the very end of the room; a blue one and a red one. What was strange was that there was a table located to the right of the room, that had, what looked to be, the group's equipment on it. Before they could get their equipment and take in the rest of the room, a low, dulcet voice, which belonged to a female, piped up through wall speakers, which weren't seen in the room.

"Welcome, my little marionetas," she said, followed by a dark chuckle. "How is your stay here? Is it to your liking?"

"Who are you?!" Leon bellowed, as he took quick glances at his surroundings again; checking if he overlooked a person hiding under the table.

The voice gasped in mock horror, followed by, "How rude!" She laughed again. "My name is none of your importance at this moment in time, Mr. Kennedy."

The agent was unnerved. How did she know his name?

"Now then," she started. "I am going to explain your current predicament, if that is alright with you, Mr. Kennedy."

"Tell us," Leon sighed in annoyance.

"Thank you," the stranger cleared her throat. "I have personally selected all of you to partake in a little test I have set up. You are all going to go through hell itself, both for your own lives and for the life of the President's daughter."

"What?! Where's Ashley?!"

"Quiet, Mr. Kennedy, questions come later. Currently, we are situated on an island, made to emulate a resort town covered by a blanket of fog. This island contains many monsters too, ones created by me. Ashley is somewhere on this island, waiting to be saved, and as for where she is, I will give you a hint after you pass the first trial. Your objective is to rescue Ashley, while keeping your stress levels low."

"And why is that, exactly?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I was doing some work on the Las Plaugas parasites, and made a few tweaks to them. I made their assimilation process quicker, almost instantaneous, when the host was stressed. I ought to mention that you all have been injected with that parasite, so if you get stressed, you will essentially become my puppets, that means involuntarily you will do as I say; I will have total control over you all."

Leon scowled.

"You could have picked anyone in the world," he started. "Choosing me, I get that, but why these people? They're just normal people living normal lives, two of them being kids."

"I have my reasons. Harry Mason defeated the God of Silent Hill, and even braved the horrors of that town, just so he could find his little Cheryl; James Sunderland not only braved the horrors of that town, but also discovered a shocking revelation about himself, one he does not wish to share. Heather Mason, that is what you go by now is it not, has a secret that only her 'father' Harry knows; and what can I say about Henry Townshend? He was trapped in his apartment for days, and had to go through holes, which led to nightmarish places, just to see a lot of people die. Then he defeated serial killer, Walter Sullivan and saved his friend. It is correct is it not, Receiver of Wisdom? Do you wish for me to continue, Mr. Kennedy?"

Leon couldn't answer, he was speechless. Why didn't they tell him this? Well, it was personal information. But, how did she know this?

"I take that silence as a, 'please do.' Then we have the strange monkey boy, Zidane Tribal, who is a truly interesting case, however, as much as I would love to explain, it would take too long and ruin my fun. So, I shall tell you this, I'm going to use him as a tool for revenge on a repulsive human being when this is done. The rest of you will be used to fulfil a much greater purpose, if you do not fall into eternal slumber first. Lastly, there is you Mr. Scott Kennedy, who is not only an agent for the United States Government, but also the murderer of the Los Illuminados and its extraordinary leader, Osmund Saddler. Well, I will tell you now, my aim is to bring the cult back from the dead, using all of you to help when this is over. I will be the new leader, and together we will take the world by storm!"

And with that, she went offline, leaving everyone in the room to stare in shock.

"This is not good," Leon stated, generally unnerved by the events that had just transpired.

"I couldn't agree with you more," Harry said, who was trying to think of a plausible reason, as to how this woman knew this stuff about all of them.

"Dad, what was she talking about? What is this secret about me that only you know?" Heather asked, her face being a mix of hurt and confusion.

"How did she know what I experienced in Ashfield?" Henry wondered.

James had a guilty look on his face, and Zidane had a look of shock mixed with confusion and unease; both were silent.

"And the kid being 'an interesting case,' What did she mean by that?" Harry pondered.

"We need to find answers," Leon stated. "Let's get our equipment and get going!"

 **XXXXXXX**

 **And that was chapter 5. I'm sorry if the chapter may have been confusing, and left you thinking, "What the hell is going on?!" But answers will come...**

 **Speaking of which, chapters for this story may not come as frequently anymore, and not just because of me moving house, but because of loss of inspiration and steam for this story. I enjoyed writing it at the start, but now it just feels like a chore, that I need to push through, which isn't good. I'll still going to update it, but just when I feel like it... which may not be very often. I sincerely apologise, to those who may have been enjoying this story, and I would like to say thank you to those who have favourited and followed this story, and would hopefully bare with me until I get my inspiration for this story back.**

 **Despite this however, improvements are still appreciated, please tell me what I did right, wrong and how I can improve. If you would like, you could still favourite and follow this fic, as well as suggest ideas for future chapters. R &R and thanks for reading!**


	6. Two Doors, Two Groups

**(A/N) Okay, so after a few months, Chapter 6 is finally here. This one took a while to write, as I have stuff going on in my real life, as well as other stories. Anyway, as I said last chapter, this story isn't discontinued, I'm just updating it whenever I feel like it.**

 **And as stupid as it is to say this, thank you MazerMooso for reviewing the story. It's just nice to know that someone likes it. Sure, you can tell by who favourite and follow the story, but reading someone praise your story in a review feels more motivating. People who favourite and follow the story are still very appreciated, even the guests who can't favourite or follow. You're all appreciated.**

 **Man, I feel stupid. Sorry for that!**

 **No flames please, if you hate it, keep it to yourself. However, if you think it could be better, recommend improvements, as well as what was good and what was bad.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own these franchises, or their characters. Resident Evil belongs to CAPCOM, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid belong to KONAMI and Final Fantasy belongs to SQUARE ENIX.**

 **I'm thinking of not even adding Metal Gear into the story. What do you think? Should I add them in at some point, or not?**

 **XXXXXXX**

Chapter 6: Two Doors, Two Groups

For the first time in a while, Leon was genuinely unnerved. A stranger knew personal information on the entire group; secrets that they didn't want getting out. The stranger, the unnamed woman, could have also been responsible for their, and Ashley's, abduction, and if that didn't creep him out enough, this woman also worshipped Saddler and the Los Illuminados.

And now he just found out that they've been infected with a new type of parasite, one that responds to increased levels of stress. He wasn't liking this feeling of déjà vu.

As the agent placed his weapons back in their respective holsters, he took a quick glance around the room. The atmosphere could have been better, much better.

Harry looked oddly guilty about something, while he was picking up his equipment. While he was checking his flashlight over, to make sure that it was in working order, he took quick glances at Heather from the corner of his eye. Heather didn't even notice, she was busy setting up her own equipment, a look of hurt and sadness on her face. What did Harry know about Heather that nobody else, not even Heather herself, knew? What exactly happened to this 'Cheryl' in the town of Silent Hill? The agent remembered Harry saying that she was 'lost' in the town, never to be seen again, but why? What happened there? Wasn't Heather his daughter?

Next, Leon saw Henry, who was looking straight ahead, expressionless. He appeared to be deep in thought, as he adjusted his gun; presumably checking if the aim was okay, and the safety was on to avoid accidently killing any of the group, or other innocents. Henry was the one Leon was the most concerned about; he wasn't trying to play favourites, far from it, the agent was just concerned about the other man's mental state. Heather may not know something about herself, and Harry's 'Cheryl' may have been lost in Silent Hill, but as upsetting as these stories may have been, they sounded believable, minus Harry 'defeating the God of Silent Hill'. The part about Henry being trapped in his room for days Leon could believe, but the part about him going through holes that led to 'nightmarish places', and killing an already deceased serial killer Leon didn't get. Thinking about it was giving the blonde a headache, but was there truth to this tale? Maybe Walter Sullivan faked his death in prison just to go into hiding, and then attacked Henry. No, the news about Sullivan's death was in the news and in the papers, so he had to have been dead right? His body was even shown in a body bag! Why was Leon analysing Henry's past? It had to be true; considering the fact that the unknown woman brought it up as if it was factual, and to put Henry's reaction into consideration...

 _'How did she know what I experienced in Ashfield?'_

Shaking his head, Leon looked towards James, who was holding a radio, giving it a shake every couple of seconds, as he inspected it. He looked depressed, even more so than he usually did. The agent was curious as to what this 'shocking' revelation was, but knew it was best to wait for James to explain it himself when he's ready, not force it out of him; he wasn't on interrogation duty today. Leon's gaze then fell on Zidane, who was just sat there, not doing anything with a blank stare on his face. He may have finished sorting his equipment out, as he saw two holsters on his belt, one on each side, each with a dagger in them. His tail was swishing from side to side, which prompted Leon to think of what the strange woman had said about him, 'a truly interesting case;' what did she mean by that? If she meant the fact that he had a tail, then the American agent could understand why. Come to think of it, why did he have a tail? It's not a normal part of the human anatomy, unless it was some sort of genetic mutation, but Leon thought that wasn't the case. If it was a genetic mutation, then it wouldn't be fully functioning would it?

Sighing, Leon finished with the rest of his equipment, and rounded the group up to make a plan from there on out. It seemed they were on a time limit, and as infuriating as that was, they just had to suck it up and do what they had to do: save Ashley, find a way to cure themselves, then get home.

"Okay, I know most of you are going through emotions, but despite this, we still have to continue with our mission," Leon started. "If we don't, we'll be in a lot of shit."

"He's right," Harry agreed, as he placed his flashlight in his breast pocket. "We can't afford to waste time moping over the fact that a stranger knows our pasts. We have to get a grip, and as hard as it is for me to say this, the past is in the past. Right now we have to focus on our current situation, and forget about the past for now."

"As right as you are, Harry, it's not that easy to forget about your past," James said, sounding as down as he looked. "Some things happen that you just can't forget about, especially the negative memories. The feeling of losing someone stays with you forever."

"Yeah, but it's your choice to sit there and cry about it," Zidane spoke up, not with his usual upbeat tone, but with a more serious and genuine one. "You can think about it all you want, but you still have to move on with your life and focus on the present. I'm not trying to sound insensitive, I'm just trying to give you advice. I know losing someone isn't great, but I don't think they'd like the thought of you not moving on with your life."

"I agree," it was Heather's turn to talk. "Mary might be gone, but your memories of her remain; she lives on through those memories. She even told you to move on with your life in that letter."

"Mary?" Zidane asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Letter?" Leon looked just as confused as the younger blonde.

"Oh, you don't know?" Harry asked, as if it should be obvious.

Both blondes shook their heads in response.

"Mary was my wife," James replied. "She died three -" he cut himself off mid-sentence with a scowl, before saying, "never mind."

"Anyway," Heather continued. "Let's get back on topic."

"Yes," Harry cleared his throat. "There appears to be two doors here, a red and a blue. I think it would be best if we split up into two groups of three people. Leon will lead the first group, I will lead the second. In my group, I will have James and Henry, and we'll be going through the blue door." He then turned to Leon. "That means, Leon, you will have Zidane and Heather, and you'll be going through the red door."

"Don't we all get a say, Harry?" Leon asked, not really fond of being told what to do by a civilian.

"No. I want to keep and eye on these two," Harry stated, gesturing towards James and Henry. "I trust Heather will be fine with you, and I believe the boy would be more comfortable with you, as he's known you the longest."

"Fair enough," Leon replied, as he watched Harry and his group approach the blue door.

Turning towards his group, Leon took his gun out of its holster.

"Come on, let's go."

With that, the trio approached the red door. Through the door was, unsurprisingly, a red corridor that appeared to contain fog, or smoke. The room was humid, very humid, and due to that it was hard to breathe; the air was almost suffocating. There were pipes in the room that were emitting hot steam, which would most likely explain the humidity and smoke in the room. Leon had his gun gripped tightly in his right hand, prepared to fire if necessary, though he hoped it wouldn't come to that. Heather and Zidane were following closely behind; the former with her gun clenched in her hand, and the latter with each of his hands on his dagger sheaths.

The corridor appeared to become wider, and patches of rusted, metal grating could be seen on the floor, as the trio could hear a creaking noise above them. Looking up, they could see nothing out of the ordinary, just a red ceiling with large patches of black in the shape of squares. As slightly odd as it was, it didn't appear to be threatening in any way. The creaking sound persisted, leaving the trio confused as to where it was even coming from.

 _'What is that sound?'_ Leon thought to himself, as he looked around quizzically. His question was answered when he heard a crashing sound behind them; a sound that told them that it was a large, heavy object. Turning around, they saw that a large cage had fallen from the ceiling, mere centimetres away from the two teens. Having another quick look at the ceiling to try and figure out where it came from, they were met with a cage coming down on them, but were able to dodge in time.

"Run!" Leon ordered, as the three of them sprinted in the direction they were already going in. As they ran, cages fell on them relentlessly, prompting them to either run, or even move like some sort of gymnast, minus Heather, who just stuck to running. When they spotted a door, their speed increased, until they eventually got there.

Panting, Heather turned to Leon. "What the heck?"

"Took the words right outta my mouth," Leon replied. "From all the weird shit anyone's thrown at me, falling cages take the cake."

"Really?" Zidane asked. "I admit falling cages are weird, but not the weirdest thing in the world."

"Yeah, it is, I've seen it all."

"You probably haven't seen it all, Leon," Heather giggled.

"Trust me, I have seen enough."

"I doubt it," Zidane pointed out. "You may have murdered this Austin Sandler guy, and murdered a cult, and currently work for the government, and -"

"Witnessed the destruction of Raccoon City," Leon finished. "And the name was 'Osmund Saddler' not 'Austin Sandler'," he corrected, with a small smirk. "How did you know about the incident in Spain?"

"The lady was basically ranting about it, remember?" Zidane stated. "It's the reason why you were involved in this, apparently."

"Oh."

Leon had forgotten that the unknown woman brought the cult up as a reason why she involved him. He was that focused on the past of others, that he had forgotten that the incident in Spain was mentioned.

"Hey, Leon," he heard Zidane's voice. "There's some paper on the door, with writing on it."

Looking to where the boy was pointing, he did in fact see a note on the rusted door they were stood in front of. It read:

 ** _'I cannot believe that you have gotten this far, I will say that I am surprised._**  
 ** _I take it you have decided to go through this red door, which is quite unfortunate._**  
 ** _What awaits you through this door is a nightmarish fate, which may prove some difficulty._**  
 ** _You can handle it, right?_**  
 ** _Well, I cannot keep hindering you, so I shall conclude this with a farewell._**  
 ** _Welcome to hell, marionetas._**  
 ** _~ Your Saviour.'_**

"Saviour?" Zidane raised an eyebrow, as he squinted at the paper. "That's a pretty cheesy name, don't you think?"

"Saviour my ass," Heather spat, before she hunched forward and fell into a fit of coughing. The blondes looked at each other, then back at the girl with concern. Their concern heightened when she coughed up blood. After looking down at her hands with horror, she turned to Leon as if expecting an explanation.

"Don't panic, you're not dying if that's what you're thinking," he reassured her. "You remember what the woman said, don't you? The fact that we've all been injected with the Las Plaugas that had some 'tweaks' done on it."

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, when you cough up blood, that means the egg has hatched. The parasite is now growing at a slow pace, however if you get stressed... the woman explained it."

"I have to keep calm now, huh?"

"Yeah. Do you feel tired at all?"

"Uh-huh, but I have been for a while," she replied. "I don't sleep very often, I worry too much."

"Okay," Leon started to worry. Heather coughed up blood; it could be anytime now before him, Harry, James, Henry, and... Zidane? He actually wasn't sure about him, as he wasn't captured at the same time as himself and the other four, or so he assumed; he never asked the boy. Turning to the boy in question, he asked, "how long were you contained for, Zidane?"

"I don't know," he replied, folding his arms. "I know it was long before you, anyway."

"Have you coughed up blood, or witnessed other alarming symptoms?"

"Yeah, I coughed up blood shortly after they threw you in the room with me. I thought I had some internal bleeding or something, but passed out before I could think about it further."

"And you're still calm?" Heather asked in disbelief.

"Well, yeah, I kinda forgot about it until now."

'Okay, so two out of the six of us have displayed symptoms; we're running out of time.'

"Let's go, as morbid as this sounds, we're running out of time," Leon said, before they entered the room.

(...)

"Hmm..."

"What is it, Harry?" James asked, looking behind said man's shoulder to see what he was reading.

"Welcome to my human aquarium," he read the line that puzzled him a little. _'Human aquarium? What's that supposed to -'_

"What does that mean?" Henry asked.

"I wish I knew," Harry replied. "The only way to find out is to go through this door."

Opening the door, the trio were greeted by a large wave of water running towards them. Before Harry could give the order to run, they were grabbed by the water and pulled into the room.

 **XXXXXXX**

 **And that was chapter 6. Sorry if it was terrible, confusing, boring, or whatever I feel like this chapter is. I really have to be more positive about my writing haven't I? I'm really hoping I have the characters in character, I kinda feel like they're swaying out of character. Meh, if they're out of character, you all can tell me and state why. Don't be mean about it though.**

 **Improvements are still appreciated, please tell me what I did right, wrong and how I can improve. If you would like, you could still favourite and follow this fic, as well as suggest ideas for future chapters. R &R and thanks for reading!**


	7. Fighting in the Depths of Hell

**(A/N) After 5 months, Chapter 7 is finally here! I apologise for the wait, and I thank you for your patience.**

 **I started working on this chapter in December, and aimed to have it done in about January, or February; as you know, it's April now. Things got in the way like college, and I kinda struggled with how I wanted the chapter to be executed, if that makes sense. I knew exactly what I wanted to happen in the chapter, but didn't know how to word it, for some reason.**

 **Also, as you can see, this chapter is longer than normal; the plan wasn't overly big... but it was long. Anyway, I hope this long chapter makes up for the wait.**

 **No flames please, if you hate it, keep it to yourself. However, if you think it could be better, recommend improvements, as well as what was good and what was bad.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own these franchises, or their characters. Resident Evil belongs to CAPCOM, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid belong to KONAMI and Final Fantasy belongs to SQUARE ENIX.**

 **XXXXXXX**

Chapter 7: Fighting in the Depths of Hell

Hell was the only word Leon could think of to describe the room he had entered. The room itself was a blazing inferno that had almost been completely engulfed by the flames occupying it; leaving only a clear path, and before that path, items like rusted cranks, alongside wheels and vases, that looked surprisingly kempt were intact; nothing else could be seen due to the flames being too thick and tall, giving the impression of emptiness. The crimson flames looked to be tamed, and although that was a relief, it didn't quite sit well with the agent; considering one of the many characteristics of fire was to spread, and burn everything in its path to a pile of ash. It wasn't natural for fire to dance in place, given its destructive nature, though it still heated up the room significantly, and gave it a rich, orange glow.

Thinking about it more just increased the agent's unease, which was understandable.

Due to the intense heat, the room was already starting to take a toll on the American; his head was starting to feel much lighter than it usually did, accompanied by the feeling of nausea, and a burning sensation on his face. The two teens by his side weren't faring any better; Zidane, like Leon, gave the impression of being unfazed, however, it was evident that he was too warm for comfort; his face was a vivid pink and he kept rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand. Heather looked nauseous; her right hand resting on her stomach, and her left hand gripping her gun tightly, shaking slightly as it did so. Her breathing was also uneven, and looking at her facial expression, Leon could tell that not only was she feeling unwell, but also bewildered, as she glanced around the room in disbelief.

"How is this building still standing?" She asked breathlessly, removing her hand off her stomach to wipe a droplet of sweat off her forehead.

"I don't know," Zidane replied with a shrug of his shoulders, and a slight smirk. "Maybe it's magic."

"Magic?" Heather raised a sweaty eyebrow, emitting a dry giggle. "I don't think so, and anyway, I was mainly asking Leon." She then turned to the man mentioned. "So, what are we going to do here, 'Leader'?"

If the agent was going to be honest with himself, he wasn't sure. Firstly, there was a large possibility that the flames were not really as safe as they were making themselves out to be; the trio getting burnt to death as a result of them being careless. But, if they wanted to make progress, then something needed to be done; and no one would know what that would be, if they didn't look around first.

"Before we do anything here, we should have a look around," he stated, taking in his surroundings, warily. "We don't know what can be done here, unless we do."

"Okay," Heather responded, trying to fan herself with her free hand. "Should we split up to save time, or do you suppose we stay together?"

"I think we should stick together," Zidane quickly interrupted, stretching before combing a hand through his hair. "Splitting up in this heat seems like a dumb idea."

"I wasn't asking you."

"I was just stating my opinion on the idea."

"Well..." she sighed. "There's nothing wrong with that, but you should have given us time to think."

"But," Zidane started, his expression becoming slightly smug. "If we split up, there'd be no one to pick us up if the heat got too much. I say that it'd be best if we stick together and look out for one another, that way, no one passes out and burns to death. That makes sticking together the better option to begin with."

The agent actually thought of that 'what-if' scenario; fainting due to heat exhaustion, which, in that heat, would be very likely. The solution he came to was similar to what the kid had just said; sticking together, and picking each other up if they fall. That made sticking together the wiser option in his mind, and he didn't trust the teens to stay conscious for long; especially when they already looked like they were going to keel over and die at any moment. He didn't even trust himself to stay awake for long. So, they had to be quick.

"He's right," Leon spoke up. "This place looks like it's going to be a death-trap, so splitting up would be the last thing we want to do. Staying together sounds like the better option, but we need to be quick, if we want to live."

"Good point, actually," Heather placed her hand on her forehead. "Where should we start?"

"The only way we can; forward," the agent said, as he started to walk in that direction, the other two following behind him.

The path they walked on was much more linear than Leon had expected it to be; they were being lead by fire walls, similar to that of a hedge in a maze. A headache was starting to form in the American's head, and his muscles started to feel much weaker, making his movements feel heavier; most likely due to the temperature increasing. A part of him wondered if the other two were feeling the same, but mostly, his mind was thinking of ways to get whatever needed to be accomplished in this room over and done with, so they could leave. Behind him, he could hear muffled groans from Heather as she wiped more sweat from her face, and the three footsteps behind him becoming heavier.

 _'Three?!'_

Leon sharply turned to face the two teens, and that was what he saw; no third person. Was he hallucinating due to heat exhaustion, or were they actually being followed? Heather and Zidane wore worried expressions, as they turned to look behind them as well. When they looked back at the agent, Heather spoke up.

"Are you okay, Leon?" She asked weakly, placing a hand on her red cheeks in a slight daze.

"Yeah, I just thought..." he wiped some sweat off his forehead, pushing his worries to the side. "Never mind."

"Leon, remember, we agreed to stick together," Zidane told him, concern apparent in his voice and facial expression. "So, don't leave us in the dark, okay. Tell us what's up."

"Yeah, Leon," Heather said. "What's wrong? We can't help you if you don't tell us."

The agent sighed. How could he have forgotten that conversation they had?

 ** _'We all agreed to help you, so that's what we're going to do. If a threat were to appear, we take it on together.'_**

Harry had said that, when Leon had offered to enter a sketchy looking room on his own. Everyone else also said roughly the same thing afterwards, albeit phrased differently. Despite that, they were all telling him to trust them, and think like one unit, a team.

However, the agent couldn't bring himself to do that; if these civilians were to get injured in anyway, especially the two teens he was with, then he'd be plagued with guilt, and not only that, but he assumed he'd be in serious trouble; especially with Harry. So, he had to do what he did best; protect these people like they were regular civilians, meaning keeping them in the dark, too. They were being followed, he knew that, however he had to lie to them, for their own good.

Clearing his throat, he answered. "I wanted to see if you were okay," he said on the spot. "Your footsteps were getting heavier, you know; are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah," they both said in unison, looks of concern still present on their faces.

"Good."

Leon didn't feel good lying to them about the likelihood of a stalker on their trail, but he felt it was best, so that everyone was thinking about the objective at hand for now; the quicker they were out of that room, the better. But didn't he say that he wouldn't leave anyone in the dark from now on; rely on his new allies, as well as himself?

 _'Is lying to them really a good idea?'_

As they continued walking forward, the agent heard the third pair of footsteps again, followed by a loud crash and a feminine scream; prompting Leon to immediately turn to look behind him again. He saw that a large piece of rubble had fallen, and was mere inches away from crushing Heather and Zidane; the former had her free hand over her chest, and shook slightly, as she gasped for breath, not taking her eyes off the object while she took two small steps back; the latter stared at the object wide eyed, while his tail visibly twitched.

"Are you two okay?" The blonde agent asked in alarm, approaching them hastily.

"Yeah, thanks," Zidane replied, before turning to look at Heather, sympathetically. "I don't know about her, though."

"Heather, are you -"

"I'm fine," she said suddenly, straightening her hair out while taking a deep breath. "I'm fine, Leon, thanks for asking."

"Okay, if you're sure," Leon turned to the direction they were walking in initially, sighing whilst rubbing the back of his neck. "If something is wrong, tell me, okay?"

"Sure, and the same applies to you too, Leon," she sighed. "You are sure you're not hiding anything from us, right?"

"No... I'm - Let's just go, we're running out of time."

They really had to leave; the agent didn't like being followed by unwanted people with questionable motives, and not only that, but he was gradually feeling more faint the longer he stayed in that room. Luckily for them, it didn't take long to get to an open area, however they didn't escape the heat, or the potential pursuer.

Glancing around, the agent could see that there were quite a lot of vases scattered around, but that wasn't what caught his eye; a small stage could be seen, and on that stage was a large, dark green door. Without wasting time, he ran towards it and frantically pulled the handle. It was locked. Sighing, the blonde turned to the other two in the group, who had caught up quite quickly.

"I guess we're looking for a key," he stated, resting a hand on his head.

He didn't have time for this.

"That's just great," Heather commented, sarcastically. "I should have known that this wasn't going to be easy."

"Yeah," Zidane sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "But at least the key won't be too far; we're only in one room after all."

"You're probably right," Leon said, taking a quick glance at the door, before looking at the two blondes again. "We should start looking."

"But where should we start? This room isn't exactly small, and we could succumb to the heat at any moment," Heather reminded him. "What if it's on a flame proof string dangling over a flame? Thinking about how twisted that woman sounded, that could be where the key is."

"You do have quite an imagination," Zidane chuckled, walking to the edge of the stage to scan the surrounding area.

"Oh yeah, this is coming from the kid that said 'magic' was the reason why a fire infested room was still in good condition," the girl scoffed, folding her arms.

"Well, I guess you're right about that," he turned back to the door, placing his hands on his hips with a slight smirk. "I think the key could be in a chest somewhere, because it just makes sense; especially when compared to the flame proof string idea."

"Hey! It makes sense..."

"In another world, maybe."

"Oh, you -!"

"Heather, not now," the agent had cut the girl off with an irritated tone, before looking at the monkey boy. "You, too. The key could be anywhere in this room, so instead of standing here arguing like children, let's just -"

"Get on with it!" A voice growled harshly from seemingly nowhere, prompting Leon to ready his gun.

The agent noticed that his sudden action caused Heather to ready her own pistol, whilst for some reason darting a glare at him before focusing on what was in front of her. Did she figure out his white lie somehow? Is she mad? Of course she is, but that shouldn't be the main priority in the situation. Shaking it off, he focused on finding the source of the voice.

In his line of sight, he could see Zidane gripping his sheaths, as he took wary glances around the room. Behind him, Leon saw the flames that had always been there, the vases, the cloaked man in the distance, the - wait? Cloaked man?

A cloaked man could be seen; the cloak he wore was red, and he had his face covered with some sort of golden cat mask. The hood was also up, further hiding his identity.

 _'That has to be the pursuer!'_ He thought, as he pointed his gun to where the unfamiliar figure was, but before Leon could order him to put his hands were he could see them, and question him about his motives, he seemed to move away at an inhuman speed. Not long after, Zidane removed his daggers from their sheaths, and turned to look behind him to see nothing there, then turned back to look at Leon; his expression went from that of confusion to that of horror.

The agent didn't understand why he wore such an expression, but did when something caught the corner of his eye. Knitting his brows together, he turned to his left to see the cloaked man on Heather's left side, preparing to bring a spear down on her. Everything seemed to slow down, as he aimed his gun in that direction, putting his finger on the trigger as the teenage girl turned her head to look at him with wide eyes.

"Leon! What are you -!"

"Get down!"

He didn't have to tell her twice, she ducked, due to the urgency in his voice, allowing him to fire his gun in an attempt to incapacitate him; however, the agent should have known that it wasn't going to be easy. Lowering his weapon in confusion, a mumbled, "What?" escaped his mouth; he fired at nothing, the unknown man got away.

 _'How?'_

"What's going on?" He heard Heather ask, which snapped him out of his thoughts. She stood up straight, and looked at him in mild frustration.

"I missed," he replied, as he shook his head slightly. "I haven't missed that bad since -"

"Missed what?"

She cut him off with a question. He sighed; he should have known that he wouldn't be able to keep it hidden forever, but he thought it would be the right thing to do, so they could focus on the primary objective: finding Ashley. Right, that was what he had to focus on, not getting into a potential argument with a teenager.

"Nothing, it doesn't -"

"There's a cloaked man, Leon; I saw him with my own eyes," Heather told him with a look of disappointment on her face. "You knew about him, didn't you?"

Okay, she knew; he guessed he had to tell her.

"I knew we were being followed, just not _who_ was following us," he sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have -"

"Yeah, you shouldn't have," she ran a hand through her hair, as she turned away from the agent. "I should of started questioning you when I noticed you acting strange earlier. You said you wouldn't keep us in the dark, you said -"

"Guys," Zidane interrupted, approaching the two blondes. "I don't think now's the time to be fighting. There's someone out there, who has 'suspicious' written all over them, so we have to focus on that, not this."

"He is right," an unknown deep voice said, as the owner of the voice, the mysterious cloaked man, jumped down from the ceiling. "I believe the main priority should be me, not the liar with his pants on fire."

"Who are you?" Leon asked scornfully, as he readied his gun yet again.

"I am codenamed 'Sphinx,' for my mysterious nature," he chuckled, clearly pleased with himself.

"Why are you here?" Heather asked carefully, having her gun aimed at him also.

"Well, if you must know, I have the key to that door over there," he answered, pointing to the big door behind the trio. He then pointed to the rope wrapped around his waist, with a key dangling off of it. "Right here, if you need proof of my claims."

"Great," Zidane extended his hand out to him, with a grin on his face. "If you would so kindly hand it over -"

"No," he interrupted the boy, folding his arms.

"And why not? We have to save the daughter of the President!"

"Do I care? Are you aware of what a Sphinx is in Egyptian mythology, monkey boy?"

"They gave people puzzles to solve, right?" He replied, sheathing his daggers and folding his arms.

"You are not wrong," he chuckled. "However, unlike my namesake, I will not be doing that; I just want to have fun."

"Really?"

Leon was watching this exchange in mild confusion; why were they talking about the sphinx from mythology. Furthermore, where did the kid get that knowledge from? School? That was plausible actually. His thoughts were cut short when the cloaked man, Sphinx, spoke again.

"You know, child," he said, as he raised his hand, causing the path the trio had come from to be blocked by a wall. He then lowered his hand, which then made the flames in the room vanish from existence; they had nowhere to go now, and at least the room temperature was normalised. "I just noticed that you sheathed your daggers, you do not do that in front of your enemy."

"And do _I_ care?" Zidane sighed, his smile not wavering.

Sphinx released a deep, menacing chuckle in response, before conjuring a ball of fire in his hand and throwing it at his opponents. Leon rolled out of the way effortlessly, but didn't land as gracefully as he thought he would; falling on his back due to unexpectedly losing his footing. He noticed that Zidane was able to flip out of the way, un-sheathing his daggers upon landing; and Heather was able to duck and strafe out of harms way, turning to aim at the man attacking them.

For kids inexperienced in this sort of thing, the agent was impressed with their dodging skills. Upon realising that he was just lying there, the agent leaned on his side with a grunt, and without thinking, brought his gun up in front of him and fired at the cloaked man calling himself 'Sphinx'. Much to the agent's frustration, he kept dodging every bullet with ease, and started to laugh when the agent's gun clicked, meaning he had to reload. The laugh was put to a stop, when the man turned to his left, to see Zidane running at him; daggers above his head, ready to strike. Sighing, Sphinx stepped to the side, making the monkey tailed teen stab thin air. The kid turned to make another attempt to strike the man, but promptly had both of his arms grabbed, and before the blonde could even blink, he was flung across the room, smacking a wall before landing on a vase, smashing it in the process.

"Shit!" The agent growled, as he managed to find an ammo clip, and tried to put it in his gun. "Zidane, are you okay?!"

As Zidane tried to stand, the cloaked man was slowly approaching him, conjuring a red katana in his hand. From what Leon could see, the boy looked dazed and not in a state to fight back; which made the task of getting the ammo clip in even more frustrating. His hands were shaking, he felt dizzy and couldn't stand, making what he found a simple task, difficult. Sphinx brought his katana up above his head, and was about to decapitate his opponent, when he rolled out of the way and glared at him, while down on his hands and knees.

Managing to get the ammo clip into his gun, Leon turned to look at Heather, who was aiming at Sphinx, a loss of what to do, her gun shaking.

"Heather! What are you doing?!" Leon yelled, getting her attention.

"Oh!" She pulled the trigger, which caused Sphinx to place his attention on her.

"So, you want see if you are worthy enough to fight me, eh?" He asked, as he pointed his katana at her. "You got one hit; let us see if you can get another."

Determination in her eyes, she fired at him again. Easily deflecting the bullet with his katana blade, he turned it into a spear, the same one he tried to get her with not too long ago, and threw it at her. With not even a second thought, Leon forced himself up and pushed her out of the way, the spear hitting the wall instead.

With Sphinx distracted, Zidane yanked the key from his belt, prompting the cloaked man to turn around and grab him by the throat. The kid's eyes widened, as he brought up his dagger and stabbed the man in the arm. Unfazed by this he removed the dagger from the blonde's grip and threw it away, while tightening his grip on Zidane's neck.

"You sure know how to push my buttons; what you did there was called cheating!" Sphinx yelled, tightening his grip further, making the blonde's cheeks turn purple. He then chuckled. "You also do not stab someone in the back, Mr. Scott Kennedy," he then turned to the agent, who was prepared to stab the other man in the back with Zidane's discarded weapon. "That is not a fair fight."

"Then let him go," Leon growled, harshly.

"Oh, what about I -"

"Sphinx?" a voice was heard on a radio that the cloaked man apparently had on his person; a voice that sounded suspiciously like the 'Saviour'. "Sphinx, do you read me?"

He promptly let Zidane go, and stood up to get his radio out; the agent took this opportunity to run to the kid's aid.

"Yes, my lady!" Sphinx was heard exclaiming into his radio. "What is it that you need?"

"I need you this instant," she replied coldly.

"Oh, yes, I will be on my way," putting his radio away, he turned to the agent, who had the tailed boy in his arms. "You got lucky this time," he stated, before disappearing in a flash.

Shaking his head, Leon turned to where Heather was standing, or kneeling, then back down to the boy who was almost asphyxiated. He had the key gripped tightly in his left hand, which was resting on his chest, as he frantically gasped for air. The purple faded from his cheeks, and his lids opened, revealing bloodshot eyes.

"Hey, are you okay?" The agent asked, as he sat him up.

Zidane responded with a nod, as he handed Leon the key. With a cough, and a couple more gasps, he pointed to the kneeling Heather. "She...okay...?"

"I'm going to check on her now," he said, as he placed the boy's dagger in his hand. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Another nod.

Turning in the direction Heather was in, the girl was already stood up and dusting herself off.

"Are you okay, Heather?" He asked, as he approached her.

"Yeah, just slightly shaken," she replied, running a hand through her hair. "It all happened so fast, I couldn't keep up; I just froze, I'm so sorry -"

"Calm down, it's -"

"Is he okay?"

She turned in Zidane's direction; said person was still catching his breath as he sheathed his second dagger; eyes half-lidded and still bloodshot. Leon sighed.

"He told me he's fine," the agent told her, looking at the door behind the pair.

"He almost suffocated, I'm surprised he didn't..."

"Yeah, I know; I guess it didn't bother him too much."

"I guess," she sighed. "Who do you think that asshole was anyway?"

"I don't know," getting out the key, he turned to Zidane. "C'mon, we're getting outta here."

"Okay..." he said, as he started to walk towards the pair. "Who do you think that joker was?"

"We'll talk about it later," Leon sighed, as he stuck the key into the lock.

"Promise?" Heather asked.

"I promise."

 **XXXXXXX**

 **And that was chapter 7. I hope that it was worth the wait; if it wasn't, sorry. Also, I had a fight scene in this one, so if that needs any improvement, let me know. I'm aware this chapter is far from perfect, and if you feel like that there are problems with it, please tell me, and if you think there aren't any, tell me.**

 **Improvements are still appreciated, please tell me what I did right, wrong and how I can improve. If you would like, you could still favourite and follow this fic, as well as suggest ideas for future chapters. R &R and thanks for reading!**


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